Anupama Chopra, founder & editor of Film Companion, is a film critic, television anchor and book author. She has been writing about Bollywood since 1993. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Hindustan Times, The Los Angeles Times and Vogue (India).
Here you can find all of her reviews for movies from across the globe.
Terrie Samundra's film Kaali Khuhi is a horror film with a message. The idea is to scare you but also to make you think beyond the horror onscreen and consider the horror in life. Listen to the full review of Kaali Khuhi, starring Shabana Azmi, Satyadeep Misra, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Riva Arora.
Every episode of A Suitable Boy is stuffed with plot, passion, conflict, faith and the endless push and pull between tradition and modernity, love and duty and above all, family. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review to find out more.
Debutant director Puneet Khanna is not a fan of nuance. So his film has the straightforward title - Ginny Weds Sunny. Boy and girl (Vikrant Massey & Yami Gautam) meet-cute at a big, fat Punjabi wedding and their relationship culminates at a big, fat destination wedding. Listen to Anupama Chopra’s review to find out more.
Director Magbool Khan’s Khaali Peeli on @ZEEPLEX (https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCX3PcMUjayaB9ovRjoZacXQ) , starring Ananya Panday & Ishaan Khatter, tries to blend uncomfortable elements with Fast & Furious style car chases & romance. Listen to the review to know more.
Director Sudhir Mishra's film Serious Men on @Netflix India (https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCZSNzBgFub_WWil6TOTYwAg) , based on Manu Joseph's award winning novel, veers between sharp and sagging but ultimately Nawazuddin Siddiqui and the terrific child actor Aakshath Das steer the story to a satisfying close. Listen to the review to know more.
The best thing about Dolly and Kitty is that they are a mess. They can lie and steal. Both do really dumb things but because they are played by two keenly intelligent actors – Konkona Sensharma and Bhumi Pednekar – they don’t come off as silly or capricious.
Sadak 2 doesn’t just mirror the original in terms of narrative beats. The storytelling, performances, dialogue, cinematography, songs, background music – all seem to belong to the 90s, which was the last time Mahesh Bhatt directed a film before this. The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Jisshu Sengupta, among others.
Ram Singh Charlie, directed by Nitin Kakkar, and written by Kakkar and Sharib Hashmi, is a celebration of the artist. Kumud Mishra, playing the titular role, is a circus performer whose specialty is playing Charlie Chaplin. The film also stars Divya Dutta, Lilliput.
Mee Raqsam on Zee5 is presented by Shabana Azmi and directed by her brother, the acclaimed cinematographer Baba Azmi. Mee Raqsam is an ode to their father Kaifi Azmi. The film is about a girl Mariam obsessed with Bharatnatyam, played by Aditi Subedi, and her father Salim, played by Danish Hussain. The film also stars Naseeruddin Shah & Rakesh Chaturvedi Om.
Directed by Atul Sabharwal & produced by Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment, Class of '83 is a gritty drama about a batch of police officers who become famed encounter specialists. Set in Mumbai (Bombay) in the 80s, the film is inspired by a book named The Class of 83: The Punishers of Mumbai Police by S. Hussain Zaidi. You can watch this film on Netflix.
In Khuda Haafiz, writer-director Faruk Kabir ambitiously tries to expand the Vidyut Jammwal repertoire. With great action in place, the film has been inspired by a true incident. Also starring Shivaleeka Oberoi, Aahana Kumra, Shiv Panditt and Annu Kapoor, you can watch this film on @DisneyPlus Hotstar (https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UC0PTktRYpZXb6On0_zFKWIg) .
The film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl shows Gunjan age from a schoolgirl to a young woman. With Janhvi Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Manav Vij, Viineet Kumar Singh and Angad Bedi in pivotal roles, and directed by debutant director Sharan Sharma, this is an incredible story that seamlessly blends emancipation, valor, duty and patriotism. You can watch this film on @Netflix India from August 12.
Shakuntala Devi on Amazon Prime Video is the biopic of a woman without limits. The real life Shakuntala was a math wizard, who was famously known as the human computer. Directed by Anu Menon, this film features Vidya Balan playing Shakuntala Devi, Sanya Malhotra and Amit Sadh playing her daughter and son-in-law. Listen to this review to find out more.
Raat Akeli Hai on Netflix India begins as the classic whodunnit – one murder, many suspects. With Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Shweta Tripathi in pivotal roles, debutant director Honey Trehan and writer Smita Singh use the genre conventions to create a horrifying portrait of patriarchy. Listen to this review to find out more.
Presented by siblings Anushka Sharma-Karnesh Sharma's Clean Slate Films, Bulbbul is the story of a chudail with Tripti Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, Rahul Bose, Paoli Dam and Parambrata Chattopadhyay in key roles. The directorial debut of Anvita Dutt, this film is about the cruelties of men and the compromises that society forces women to make. You can watch the film on Netflix. #Bulbbul #Netflix #AnushkaSharma
Chaman Bahaar, starring Jitendra Kumar and Ritika Badiani, has been written and directed by debutant director Apurva Dhar Badgaiyann. Set in Lormi, a district in Chhattisgarh, this is a story about Billu, a paan seller, who along with some other men in the village, is yearning for Rinku's love. You can watch the film on Netflix.
The name Gulabo Sitabo comes from traditional puppet art, in which the two characters quarrel incessantly. Like Gulabo and Sitabo, Mirza and Baankey are always at loggerheads. Directed by Shoojit Sircar and written by Juhi Chaturvedi, the film is a bittersweet study of greed and its consequences. You can watch this film on Amazon Prime Video.
The title Choked applies to many things in this film – a pipe, a marriage, a woman’s voice, her life, a society, a country. In the latest Netflix Original film, starring Saiyami Kher and Roshan Mathew, director Anurag Kashyap rolls political critique into a suspense drama about a middle-class woman who discovers that a pipe in her kitchen is spewing cash. Listen to the review to find out more.
Chintu Ka Birthday is a modest film with an outsized heart. Directed by debutant directors Satyanshu Singh and Devanshu Singh, starring Vinay Pathak, Tillotama Shome, Seema Pahwa and Vedant Chibber in the titular role, this is a film brimming with sweetness and innate human decency.Listen to the review to find out more.
The story of an outsider in Bollywood isn't exactly new, but writer-director Pushpendra Nath Misra attempts to spice it up by being inventive. Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays the titular character, with Raghubir Yadav, Ila Arun and Anurag Kashyap in pivotal roles. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review of Ghoomketu to find out more.
The first streaming series by Anushka Sharma's Clean Slate Films, Paatal Lok is a nine-episode series, created by Sudip Sharma, who wrote NH10 and Udta Punjab. It's constructed as an investigative thriller following four killers who tried to kill a journalist. The series features Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi, Abhishek Banerjee and Gul Panag in pivotal roles. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review for more.
Netflix Original film Mrs. Serial Killer, directed by Shirish Kunder, is a thriller set in an unnamed hill station, with Jacqueline Fernandez, Manoj Bajpayee, Darshan Jariwala and Mohit Raina playing pivotal roles. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review to find out more.
Does a white saviour movie become more palatable if the white saviour is Chris Hemsworth? That is the critical question that Extraction presents. Anupama Chopra reviews Netflix's latest release Extraction, also starring Randeep Hooda and Pankaj Tripathi, created by Sam Hargrave and the Russo Brothers.
With the release of Netflix India's new web series Hasmukh, Anupama Chopra reviews the show, with Vir Das and Ranvir Shorey in lead roles. The show takes us on a journey about a stand-up comic turned murderer. Listen to the review to find out more.
This week, Anupama Chopra reviews Amazon Prime Video's Four More Shots Please! Season 2, with Sayani Gupta, Kirti Kulhari, Bani J and Maanvi Gagroo in the lead roles.
A first on video - Anupama Chopra reviews the newly released web series 'Panchayat' streaming on Amazon Prime Video. With great performances by TVF's favourite Jitendra Kumar, and stalwarts like Raghubir Yadav and Neena Gupta, TVF brings a story rooted in rural India.
The heart of this film and this franchise is Irrfan, who renders with singular elegance, the lunatic love and the ache that a parent feels. But honestly, it’s a pretty convoluted story. Here's Anupama Chopra's review of Angrezi Medium.
Sudheer is played by a wonderfully frayed, fumbling, tragi-comic Sanjay Mishra, in writer-director Hardik Mehta's film Kaamyaab. The film brings back the nostalgia with scene recreations from the 70s and 80s, and actors who lived this life, like Avtar Gill, Lilliput, Birbal, Guddi Maruti, and more.
Baaghi 3 is an adaptation of the 2012 Tamil film Vettai. Starring the platonic ideal of the Bollywood action hero Tiger Shroff, and Riteish Deshmukh & Shraddha Kapoor, more than action, this film needs a story to hang on to.
Thappad, starring Taapsee Pannu, is the story of a single slap. The beauty is that director Anubhav Sinha, who has co-written the film with Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul, doesn’t tell this story in a strident tone.
